Saturday, November 10, 2007

Shocker: Ohio State Loses to Illinois!!!

Offered without further comment, because -- frankly -- no further comment is necessary. Ohio State will not be playing for the national title this season.

They will not be ranked in the Top 2 again this season. They lost -- at home -- to an unranked team, with a clear path to the BCS title game. OSU fans can talk about "beating Michigan" next week, winning the Big Ten, going to the Rose Bowl -- but it just isn't the same.

Meanwhile, what a win for Illinois: You have to put Ron Zook in contention for Coach of the Year after this hugest of program-defining wins. What a great win for the Zooker, for Illinois, for Isiah Williams -- and for college football.

Will it be LSU and Oregon in the Top 2? Or will Kansas pull off a win tonight and, as the lone remaining unbeaten team among BCS-conference teams, finally get into the Top 2? (Or will KU feel the heat at Oklahoma State and get tagged with their first loss?)

I agree that OSU isn't out of this yet, but they gotta hope for some serious help. But why shouldn't Dan be happy? It means there's a chance we might, just might get to see the two best teams in the national championship game. Coming into this week, nobody could say that without fooling themselves about OSU.

You are right OSU is out of it if there are several one loss teams. But there might only be 3 or 4 one-loss teams. If two of the three of LSU, Oregon and WVU lose again, you would have to consider the Buckeyes again since the Big 12 teams all still play each other.

Just an insane season. We all knew Notre Dame was bad but not 1-9 bad. Wow. Miami getting rocked. This season has shown that old dynasties will not just reload every year. Perennial losers are winning and vice versa. Just a crazy season with a ton of upsets. I tihnk Oregon and LSU are the two best teams and they will play for the NC with WVU and Kansas sitting and waiting for one of those teams to trip up.

A little love for the Dawgs here... looked great in the black "blackout" jerseys, and a strong game against Auburn, who seems to always get up for the game against UGA. Congrats to coach Richt and the Bulldogs.

I think it is funny that Percy Harvin not playing in the gator game tonite is actually proving he isn't as important to the gators as I know both Dan and I felt. Sure he is electric when he is in the game but the gators are really spreading it out tonite.

Well, it wasn't like I was expecting an undefeated season at the beginning of the year. I will say after winning the first ten, expectations were raised. And no, OSU is not a fraud. If that's the case then every one-loss team is a fraud this year. USC was a fraud then last year. It's just been a crazy, tough season for EVERY team this year. And if Kansas wins out, they should play Oregon (if they also win out the rest of the season). LSU is just as bad/good as OSU, Oklahoma and WVU. Too bad Missouri won't get any love (at least for now) because I think they could handle any team right now.

I have to share this with everyone because this was absolutely hilarious. After KU stomped Nebraska last week, a woman from Nebraska wrote to the Lawrence newspaper saying that KU should be embarrassed for running up the score becuase Nebraska would never do that (which is laughable). Ironically, Nebraska scored 73 and won by 40 today and their QB threw 7 tds. Wonder what that woman is thinking now.

How about some love for Richt for coach of the year. After the UT game where they got blown out and looked flat, he pulls out the celebration against UF and the black jerseys, which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be.

They came out in red for the coin toss, then went back, and changed when the whole team ran out. Amazing. I've never heard Sanford that loud.

Just a warning to all those teams celebrating being bowl eligible, having 6 wins doesn't guarantee going to a bowl. KU last year ended up 6-6, 9th in the Big XII. Big XII has 8 bowl tie ins. However, there's the rule out there that all 7-5 teams from ANY conference must go to bowls before 6-6 teams. (not sure if this is after all conference tie ins or not however) KU didn't get an invite last year.

future- agree completely. I don't know if its Ganz or the playcalling, but they are actually throwing the ball down the field. In the early games I saw this year, Keller would look once, then just dump it off to the back. Not very impressive.

Illinois executed everything almost perfectly! That's a fun team to watch. The Ohio State offense was just not in the game. Looking ahead?

I'm a believer in the football gods...when I saw an Ohio State bandmember waving a 'Beat Blue' sign to the cameras..well..

Awesome win for Ron Zook. Another Miami alumni shows great coaching acumen. Hell, Florida didn't give him enough breathing room. If he keeps it up, Zook will be the latest addition to the Cradle of Coaches.

As for the rankings..and i'll post this monday if i remember..KansasOregonOklahomaLSUWest Virginia

Kansas showed chutzpah i didn't think they had, I move them up.Oregon handled Idle with incredible ease.Oklahoma moves up over LSU mostly because LSU is impressing me less and less. Alabama was a great win? Well..they crapped the bed vs MSU. Kentucky barely gets by vandy? SEC is down, like it or not, and I can't put LSU ahead of teams that look much more impressive.On a bright side, it's very likely that Kansas loses to Mizzou, which then takes out Oklahoma. WOuld Mizzou jump over LSU? Probably not, though they should.

I read you everyday and while, as and OSU fan, normally hate the way you dog the Buckeyes, I think this post is actually very classy. You're totally right about the Rose Bowl and Michigan but we'll take it if we can get there, as I'm sure you'd take a Florida BCS bowl if they get there.

Anyway, good stuff as always and thanks for not dogging the Bucks too much.

My greatest day as a college football fan and as an Illini football fan. Unbelievable.

I kept telling people for weeks that Illinois was going to win. Not because I was hopeful, but because i was sure it was going to happen.

This has been an unbelievable season. The Illini now have as many wins this season as the last 4 combined (thanks Ron Turner!). If Zook isn't up there for coach of the year, then I don't know what's wrong with voters (although I think someone like Mangino deserves it more, at this piont). The Illini are going bowling!

You know what Dan, at the end of the year, OSU's loss is going to look better than Oregon's - don't look at the ranking of Cal when they played (how many times did you say in the Quickie rankings shouldn't come out til mid season?!). Cal is going to finish 8-4 AT BEST, maybe Oregon had them at home, and they blew it. Illinois is going to end up ranked around 15 going into the bowls, and will most likely finish 9-3. So at least be fair when you assess teams.

Face it, every team in the Top 7 with one loss has a questionable loss to a team with 3 or more losses. If you look at it HONESTLY, Oklahoma's loss is far worse than OSU's and they are third in the polls.

You're passing judgement by the LOOK test, and passing it off as analytical. Be fair to your readers and don't try to act like your opinions are based on real analysis.

Guess that makes everyone except the winner of the Mizzou/KU game UNDESERVING of a shot at the NC, since it's better to lose to 7-3 Kentucky (oh and pull games out of your ass against Alabama and Auburn) than it is to lose to 8-3 Illinois, coached by the guy who built Florida's 2006 NC team.

As an OSU fan, I'm a little surprised at all the rage against OSU this season (led by none other than Shanoff). This was a rebuilding season for them, yet they can still go to the Rose Bowl, and end with a one-loss top 5 season. How's Florida going to end up this season?

And why do Florida fans hate OSU so much? Is there some natural Florida-Ohio Rivalry I don't know about. Look you beat OSU in both major college championships last season, why do you hate us?

Dan seems to think that OSU fans are going to go home all heart-broken that they aren't in the title game, but this season was supposed to be about rebuilding, and we're walking away with a pretty good record. If they beat MI next week and go to the Rose Bowl, well everything would be just grand.

OH and by the way OSU is still an LSU conference Title game loss (possible), Mizzou-Kansas-OU round robin (2 more losses between those three teams, guaranteed), and a Ducks or WV upset (very possible) away from being in the title game. Not probable, but possible.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.